| "I Need You" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of theNorthern Songs sheet music | |
| Song bythe Beatles | |
| from the albumHelp! | |
| Released | 6 August 1965 |
| Recorded | 15–16 February 1965 |
| Studio | EMI, London |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:28 |
| Label | Parlophone |
| Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
| Producer(s) | George Martin |
"I Need You" is a song by the English rock bandthe Beatles from their 1965 albumHelp! It was written byGeorge Harrison, the group's lead guitarist, and was the second composition of his to be released by the Beatles. The track appears in their filmHelp!, in a scene filmed onSalisbury Plain where the group were under military protection from a murderous cult.
Harrison wrote "I Need You" aboutPattie Boyd, the English model whom he married in January 1966. Recorded in February 1965 at the start of the sessions forHelp!, it features the Beatles' first use of a guitarvolume pedal.Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played the song in tribute to Harrison at theConcert for George in November 2002.
George Harrison presented "I Need You", along with "You Like Me Too Much", for consideration forthe Beatles' second feature film,Help!, in early 1965.[4] Before this, he had struggled to complete a song since the band recorded his first composition, "Don't Bother Me", for their 1963 albumWith the Beatles.[5] In a September 1964 press conference, Harrison said he had written three "bits" of songs, but nothing "whole".[6]George Martin, the band's producer, attributed his lack of productivity to the fact that "none of us had liked something he had written", and Harrison had felt disheartened.[7][8][nb 1] He subsequently resolved to ensure that his occasional vocal spots on the group's albums were his own compositions rather thanLennon–McCartney songs or cover versions.[12] According to biographerGary Tillery, Harrison's creativity was most likely inspired by his habitualmarijuana use, a legacy of the Beatles' first meeting withBob Dylan in August 1964.[13]
Harrison wrote "I Need You" about his girlfriendPattie Boyd,[14][15] whom he met in March 1964 while the Beatles were filmingA Hard Day's Night.[16] Their relationship provided Harrison with a sense of calm amid the frenzy ofBeatlemania; for Boyd, however, the jealousy of the band's fans was confronting.[17] The song's lyrics address a time when she left Harrison.[3][nb 2] Shortly before recording the songs, Harrison routined "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much" withJohn Lennon at the latter's house inWeybridge.[18] The pair worked together into the early hours of the day ofRingo Starr's wedding toMaureen Cox,[18] which took place on 11 February 1965.[19]
As recorded by the Beatles, the song is in the key ofA major.[20] Its distinctive lead guitarcadences were achieved by using avolume pedal[21] and through common guitarsuspended chords in the key of A. These form the introduction and most of the verse of the song and give a quasi-modal effect relieved in the verse by a line in therelative minor, the whole making a fourteen-barternary verse-structure. This, after a repeat,segues easily into a secondbridge melody, which is based on a simpleIV-V-I chord progression that passes through thedominant key to resolve back on the verse.[1]
The song has characteristics typical of Harrison's writing style in its syncopated melody line[22] and melodic idiosyncrasy.[23] According to author Ian Inglis, "its rhythmic and tonal structures clearly identify this as a Harrison song, but it is also, indisputably, a Beatles song."[24] Musicologist Dominic Pedler recognises an interesting feature in the use of animperfect cadence (resolving on A major) in the climax of the bridge (on "I just can't go on anymore") which uses II (B7) and V (E7) chords.[25] The verse-chorus also employs what Pedler terms a "delaying tactic" in alternating between vi and iii chords (over the lines "Please come on back to me / I'm lonely as can be") before again returning to A.[26]
The lyrics serve as a rare example of Harrison embracing the standard boy–girl themes oflove songs.[23] According to musicologistAlan Pollack, they show Harrison "at his absolutely most vulnerable" and convey a "bitter-sweetly mixed tone of plaintive, terminal desperation".[1] Harrison states his confusion at his girlfriend's decision to leave him, expresses his sadness without her, and begs her to reconsider. In Inglis's view, the singer's candour, combined with the upbeattempo and other qualities in the Beatles' arrangement, ensures "it is not a hopeless situation", and the listener can be sure that the girl will return.[24]
The Beatles recorded "I Need You" at EMI Studios (nowAbbey Road Studios) in London on 15 and 16 February 1965.[27] These were the group's first recording sessions of the year[21] and also produced "Ticket to Ride" and "Another Girl".[28] All three tracks were included inHelp!,[29] filming for which began in the Bahamas on 23 February.[30][31][nb 3]
The song marked the Beatles' first use of a guitar volume pedal.[21][33] This tone-altering effect was a precursor to thewah-wah pedal and had recently been played by session guitaristBig Jim Sullivan onDave Berry's UK chart hits "The Crying Game" and "One Heart Between Two".[34][nb 4] Harrison's adoption of the pedal typified his search for new sounds for the Beatles, and for colouring that was empathetic with the group's material.[36][37] He played the part on hisRickenbacker 12-string electric guitar[38] and soon used the effect again on "Yes It Is", a similarly emotive Lennon composition.[39] MusicologistWalter Everett recognises the volume pedal's presence on "I Need You" as the most important example within the band's work, with every chord given the "flautando-like" sound, and "multiple articulations" appearing throughout the song's coda.[40] Citing a comment later made by Harrison, Everett says that "I Need You" was possibly one of the tracks where the pedal control was operated by Lennon, kneeling down on the studio floor, while Harrison played the guitar part.[40]
In the 2006 bookRecording the Beatles, the authors highlight the song as an example of the "warm, full sound" that EMI'sTelefunken M10 four-track recorder was able to capture.[41] Journalist Kit O'Toole recognises the song's lead guitar effect and otherfolk rock qualities as having been influential onthe Byrds, whose sound in turn would influence the Beatles.[3]
The film sequence for "I Need You" was shot over 3–5 May[42] and consists of the band miming to the track onSalisbury Plain inWiltshire.[43][44] Since the start of filming forHelp!, events had taken place that distanced the Beatles, particularly Harrison and Lennon, from the public image they were expected to uphold in the feature film,[45] and were exerting a profound influence on the band's thinking.[46] Among these incidents, Harrison was introduced to Indian philosophy in the Bahamas when a localswami gave each of the Beatles a copy ofThe Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga;[47] he and Lennon, together with Boyd and Lennon's wifeCynthia,[48] had their first experience with the hallucinogenic drugLSD, in late March;[49] and Harrison encountered an Indiansitar for the first time while filming a restaurant scene in London in April.[50] In Tillery's description, 1965 was the most "pivotal" year in Harrison's life, as LSD opened the door to his enduring quest for spiritual enlightenment[51] and Eastern philosophy provided a means to escape the demands of Beatlemania.[52]
The "I Need You" sequence depicts an outdoor recording session,[44] with a makeshift control booth and microphones set up in an open field.[53] Further to the film's premise that Starr was being targeted for assassination by a mysterious cult,[54][55] the Beatles perform under the protection of the British3rd Royal Tank Regiment,[56] surrounded by soldiers andCenturion tanks.[43][57][nb 5] Although it was spring, the weather was unusually cold,[44] and the sequence shows Starr shivering behind his drum kit.[3]
The premise and the level of security afforded the band mirrored the adulation they received in real life, at the height of Beatlemania.[43][59]Media theorist Stephanie Fremaux comments on the imagery employed by directorRichard Lester in his harsh editing and shots of soldiers and weaponry to convey a sense of threat, and how this is furthered by the Beatles', and particularly Harrison's, apparent hostility and avoidance of eye contact with the camera.[59] Film historian Stephen Glynn highlights a shot that features Harrison in profile, singing into a metallic microphone, and the corresponding gun barrel of a tank as an example of Lester making "visual parallels between the tools of the musician and the military". Another example, according to Glynn, is an aerial shot of the band encircled by six tanks that cuts to a close-up of thefretboard of Harrison's guitar, with the focus soon changing to revealStonehenge in the near distance.[60][nb 6]
Help! was released by EMI'sParlophone label on 6 August 1965,[61] with "I Need You" sequenced as the fourth track between "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Another Girl".[62] Martin said the song "worked out very well" and considered it an important step for Harrison. He added: "He has got something to say as a songwriter, and I hope he keeps it up."[63][nb 7] Other than "I Need You", all the songs in the film were Lennon–McCartney compositions. As the end credits stated this on screen, a voiceover from Harrison repeatedly said, "'I Need You' by George Harrison!", increasing in volume each time.[68]
The album and film enjoyed major commercial success around the world.[69] In music journalistJon Savage's description, the summer of 1965 "belonged" to the Beatles'Help! "multimedia campaign", which comprised the "Help!" hit single as well as the film and soundtrack album.[70] InWilly Russell's 1974 play based on the Beatles' history,John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert, "I Need You" was sung byBrian Epstein's character in response to the group's decision to retire from touring in 1966.[71] The Beatles' recording of the track appeared on the 1977 compilation albumLove Songs,[72] issued by EMI to exploit the band's catalogue seven years aftertheir break-up.[73][nb 8]
Among Beatles biographers, Jonathan Gould describes "I Need You" as a "modest, mild love song" that sounded "a lot like the efforts of other contemporary songwriters to write in the style of Lennon and McCartney".[75] InMark Hertsgaard's view, the track is "a catchy pop tune" that showed how Harrison "had now matured into the kind of pleasantly stylized, if innocuous, songwriter that Lennon and McCartney had been in their early days".[76] According toAlan Clayson, "for all its simplistic libretto and suspensionsà la 'One Heart Between Two'", the song was "more immediately attractive" than some of the Lennon–McCartney songs onHelp![43]
Writing in the 2004 edition ofThe Rolling Stone Album Guide,Rob Sheffield described "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much" as "the finest George songs known to man". He viewedHelp! as the band's "big step forward" in its exploration of themes such as "doubt, loneliness, alienation, adult sexual longing" and said that for Harrison's persona relative to Lennon and McCartney, "the Quiet One got Smart as well as Cute".[77] By contrast,PopMatters editor John Bergstrom featured the song in his 2009 list titled "the worst of the Beatles". He said that "I Need You" justified statements subsequently made by Lennon, McCartney and Martin that until late in the Beatles' career, Harrison's songwriting presence was limited in accordance with his talent and experience, and he dismissed Harrison's vocal on the track as "flat and tentative, even as the lovelorn lyrics are sincere" and his use of the guitar volume pedal as rudimentary.[78]
Reviewing the remasteredHelp! that same year, forPaste magazine,Mark Kemp said that "Harrison surfaces here as a formidable songwriter, taking center stage on 'I Need You' and 'You Like Me Too Much'."[79] According toStephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic, while the two Harrison compositions pale beside Lennon and McCartney's songs on the album, "they hold their own against much of their British pop peers."[80]
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George Martin included "I Need You" on his 1965 album of instrumental versions of Beatles songs, also titledHelp![81]The Sunshine Company recorded a version, arranged byGeorge Tipton, for their 1967Imperial Records LPHappy Is the Sunshine Company.[82]
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed "I Need You" in tribute to Harrison at theConcert for George in November 2002.[83] Its inclusion provided a rare departure from the concert's program of the best-known songs from Harrison's career as a Beatle and a solo artist.[84] Petty and his band played the song in a style that Ian Inglis recognises as typical ofthe Byrds,[83] whose initial sound was inspired by the Beatles,[85] particularly Harrison's use of 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.[86][87] Inglis describes Petty's interpretation as "an uncannily accurate reconstruction" of the Byrds' mid-1960s style, with a "clipped vocal delivery" reminiscent ofRoger McGuinn, harmony singing, "chiming" guitars, and a slower tempo than on the Beatles' recording.[88]
FormerJourney vocalistSteve Perry covered "I Need You" on his 2018 albumTraces.[89] Perry said that the Beatles had recorded abossa nova-like version but had not done justice to the song, which deserved to be "a bigger sort ofR&B pocket thing". He recalled that he sought approval fromOlivia Harrison, Harrison's widow, before releasing his interpretation and was relieved when she told him, "George would haveloved this version."[90]
George Martin kept notes during the session that documented the unusual arrangement, which was:[91]
